A male student was admitted to the hospital just before noon on Tuesday for a suspected blood infection with Neisseria Meningitidis, the bacteria that causes meningitis.
According to Dr. Nancy Merrill, co-medical director of the SMU Memorial Student Health Center, the patient had fever and “non-specific” symptoms including nausea.
The presumptive diagnosis of meningococcemia was made by blood cultures done at a local emergency room. The health center was notified of the preliminary culture results today. Both the emergency room and the health center notified the patient.
“We want to inform people, not scare them,” said Merrill.
The hospital will not be able to confirm the student’s case until Thursday when his test results are completed.
Until there is confirmation, there is not a lot the health center can do since privacy laws prohibit the release of specifics about the patient’s visits or information, said Merrill.
The Dallas County Health Department, which is working with the health center, notified the student’s roommate and girlfriend to administer a preventative medicine to them.
The treatment was also administered to the entire football team, since the student is a member of the team.
The health center is concerned that with Spring Break approaching, students will pay less attention the warning.
“We don’t want people to run off to Cancun and come down with fever or weird rashes and be somewhere they can’t get the proper antibiotics,” said Merrill.
Students living in Moore Hall who think they were in contact with the hospitalized student may stop by the health center and receive a dose of Ciprofloxacin. It is a one-time dose of 500mg in pill form and costs a dollar. Not everyone needs the pill, cautioned Merrill.
A first-year student at Baylor University was hospitalized with meningococcal meningitis in early February.
A campus-wide e-mail was sent out Tuesday notifying the SMU community of the suspected meningococcal infection.
The e-mail said individuals would have to have been in contact with the infected student for at least eight hours or have shared bodily fluids.
Symptoms develop quickly and include: high fever, headache, stiff neck, vomiting, chills, drowsiness, altered mental status or rash. It can take anywhere between two and 10 days to surface.
For information contact the health center at (214) 768-2150.
